Public Lecture with Andrew Jackson
The Making of The Golden Road:
Approaches to documentary photography
20 January 2010
6.30-8pm
Shaw Library, Old Building

Andrew Jackson’s highly accomplished documentary photographic work positions him as one of Britain’s emerging and most gifted photographers. In this talk, Jackson will discuss the development of his practice over the past decade leading to the production of his most recent work The Golden Road.

Spanish in Motion in collaboration with
Talking Pictures presents Josep-María Martín
26 January 2010
6.30-8.30pm
Room D502, Clement House

The 3rd session of Spanish in Motion (Domesticating Opinion: Propaganda and Censorship) presents Prototype for a good emigration (Prototipo para una buena emigración, 25 min., 2005. In Spanish) by artist Josep-María Martín In this documentary, Martín talks about his project produced as part of InSite_05, a biennial event that engages the border area between San Diego, USA and Tijuana, Mexico, through a series of specially commissioned and site-specific works and exhibitions. The invitation to participate in the exhibition made Martín reflect on the south to north migration. His resulting project, Prototype for a good emigration, was censured by the local authorities and the organisation decided to withdraw it because ‘there was a risk of encouraging illegal migration’.

Josep-María Martín’s artistic projects have focused on the use of art to create new strategies of intervention in some social structures which appear well consolidated in modern societies but which are not entirely free of cracks. He questions and criticises, in a subjective and reflexive way, the reality in which he decides to work.

After the film, there will be a Q/A session with Josep-María Martín.

Please note that this event will be conducted in Spanish.

This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information email: languages.spanishinmotion@lse.ac.uk

Spanish in Motion is funded by LSE’s Annual Fund and Widening Participation scheme.

Spanish in Motion presents East of Havana
by Jauretsi Saizarbitoria and Emilia Menocal
Tuesday 2 March 2010
6.30-8pm
Room D402, Clement House

The 3rd Session of Spanish in Motion (Domesticating opinion: Propaganda and Censorship) presents: East of Havana by the Cuban-American film makers Jauretsi Saizarbitoria and Emilia Menocal (82 min., 2006. In Spanish with English subtitles)

Produced by actress Charlize Theron, this challenging documentary is a close-up on the lives of three young rappers compelled to address their generation’s future from the confines of a Cuban ghetto. Soandry, Magyori and Mikki are the defacto leaders of Cuba’s rebellious underground hip hop movement. Possessing the undeniable talent and charisma of pop icons, these fearless performers push self- expression to its sharpest, riskiest, and most triumphant point.

After the film, there will be a Q/A session. Speakers: Dr Elvira Antón, Senior lecturer and Co-director of the Hispanic Research Centre at Roehampton University and Vladimir Smith, founder and curator of the Festival of the Moving Image at UCL and the British-Cuban Heritage Foundation for Arts.

This event is free and open to all with no ticket required. Entry is on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information email: languages.spanishinmotion@lse.ac.uk

Public Lecture with Susan Aldworth
The Portrait Anatomised
Tuesday 2 February 2010
7.20-8.35pm
Thai Theatre, New Academic Building

Working in various media including printmaking and film, Susan Aldworth has developed an extensive body of work that explores the nature of human consciousness and identity. Through blending personal and scientific narratives, Aldworth aims to challenge conventional definitions of portraiture through an examination of the internal structure of our brains. From the intricate details of the micro-circuits formed by billions of brain cells, to the output signals that the brain generates and which are recorded through the scanning process and reflect our conscious experience. By its very nature, neuroscience offers a unique bridge between the disciplines of art and science, in its pursuit of understanding human consciousness. Likewise, Aldworth advocates the internal person as a proper subject of portraiture in the light of contemporary neuroscience and the consequent understanding of what it is to be human, and how we articulate these findings via our own creative and expressive means.

Susan Aldworth took a degree in philosophy at Nottingham University prior to studying printmaking at Sir John Cass School of Art in London. She has exhibited widely, including at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Transition Gallery, London; Unit 2, London; Peninsula Arts, Plymouth; Cuenca Biennial, Ecuador; Old Operating Theatre Museum, London; and Cheltenham Festival of Science. In 2009, her work was selected for the first international Northern Print Biennale in Newcastle upon Tyne. She has been appointed Artist-in-Residence at the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University 2010-2012, working on a project to explore visual impairment in people with schizophrenia. She lives in London.

Please note: This talk will now start at 7.20 pm, 20 minutes later than advertised.

Short films by Andrew Jackson
Fire (24 min., 2009)
No Work/No Cake (21 min., 2009)
Wednesday 10 February 2010
6.30-8pm
Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building

In addition to his highly accomplished photography, Andrew Jackson has recently begun to produce short lyrical films which, much like his photography, attempt to explore different aspects of contemporary Britain’s identity through the lives and experiences of particular individuals. The film Fire (24 min., 2009) was produced as part of Jackson’s The Hidden Landscape, a project which through photography, film and writing explored notions of community within the Lozells and Handsworth districts of Birmingham. Fire tells the story of a community from the point of view of the eponymous individual; a young man of eighteen living in Handsworth, Birmingham. As Jackson says ‘Fire is not the name bestowed upon him at birth, … but it is the name that marks him in his small corner of the world that he and his friends call “Crookery”’. No Work/No Cake (21 min., 2009) was produced as part of the exhibition The Golden Road: New photography, film and writing on contemporary Britain and economic migration. The film focuses on the main subject M__, a woman who came to Britain from Bratislava four years ago in an attempt to seek work and to start a new life.

Forum for European Philosophy and LSE Arts
Counter-Composition: Conversations on Ethics
Wednesday 17 February 2010
6.30-8pm
Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building

The evening contains lectures by the philosopher and the photographer who collaborated on the book Conversations on Ethics, which collects dialogues with and portraits of eleven leading thinkers.

Alex Voorhoeve (top) assesses and expands on Plato’s arguments for the use of dialogue in ethical enquiry. True to the spirit of these arguments, the lecture engages the audience in exchanges about a series of moral cases. Our judgments in these cases, Voorhoeve claims, help us characterise the nature of the moral point of view.

Steve Pyke describes his portraiture as ‘an investigation into the nature of being’. His lecture describes his investigation into the nature of being a philosopher. Pyke discusses how he approaches his subjects, how he chooses from among his photographs and what his portraits reveal about them.

Alex Voorhoeve is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at LSE. He has published on moral psychology and on ideals of equality, responsibility and well-being. Conversations on Ethics, which collects dialogues with eleven leading thinkers, is his first book. http://personal.lse.ac.uk/voorhoev

Steve Pyke is one of the world’s leading portrait photographers. His work was selected this year for the ‘Portraiture Now’ exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C.; he has been staff photographer for the New Yorker since 2004. He has published eight books, including the famous collection Philosophers. Steve supplied the portraits for Conversations on Ethics. www.pyke-eye.com/main.html